Bin Laden raid files get buried at CIA

Tuesday

Jul 9, 2013 at 12:01 AMJul 9, 2013 at 10:51 AM

WASHINGTON- The nation's top special-operations commander ordered military files about the Navy SEAL raid on Osama bin Laden's hideout to be purged from Defense Department computers and sent to the CIA, where they more easily could be shielded from ever being made public.

WASHINGTON- The nation's top special-operations commander ordered military files about the Navy SEAL raid on Osama bin Laden's hideout to be purged from Defense Department computers and sent to the CIA, where they more easily could be shielded from ever being made public.

The secret move, described briefly in a draft report by the Pentagon's inspector general, appears to have sidestepped federal rules and perhaps the Freedom of Information Act.

An acknowledgement by Adm. William McRaven of his actions was removed quietly from the final version of an inspector general's report published weeks ago. A spokesman for the admiral declined to comment. The CIA, noting that the bin Laden mission was overseen by then-CIA Director Leon Panetta before he became defense secretary, said that the SEALs effectively were assigned to work temporarily for the CIA.

"Records of a CIA operation such as the (bin Laden) raid, which were created during the conduct of the operation by persons acting under the authority of the CIA director, are CIA records," agency spokesman Preston Golson said in an email.

Golson said it is "absolutely false" that records were moved to the CIA to avoid the legal requirements of the Freedom of Information Act.

The records transfer was part of an effort by McRaven to protect the names of the personnel involved in the raid, according to the inspector general's draft report.

But secretly moving the records allowed the Pentagon to tell the Associated Press that it couldn't find any documents inside the Defense Department that the AP had requested more than two years ago, and could represent a new strategy for the U.S. government to shield even its most-sensitive activities from public scrutiny.

"Welcome to the shell game in place of open government," said Thomas Blanton, director of the National Security Archive, a research institution at George Washington University. "Guess which shell the records are under. If you guess the right shell, we might show them to you. It's ridiculous."